Sunday, September 14, 2008

Om Puri plays a most backward and downright chauvinist man including even authoritarian streaks. Which begs the question as to why the two even married and then why the mother did not leave his sorry ass for good. I even forgot that I watched this when me and my wife first met. Was not real memorable in that case.

East is East, a fast-moving comedy drama of mixed-race manners, is set in Salford, England in 1970. It centers on the Anglo-Pakistani alliance of the Khan family that is both claustrophobically cohesive and hopelessly dysfunctional. In their over-crowded terrace house, anarchy erupts daily with farcical energy. The Khan children, caught between the traditional dogmatism of their Pakistani father (Om Puri) and laissez-faire attitude of their British mother (Linda Bassett), have a lot of difficulties to follow their dreams of becoming citizens of the modern world. Based on the award-winning stage play by Ayub Khan-Din, East is East had great success in the theatres of London before it was made into a film. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide